7-r 



574 NOTES ON SOME OF THE 



In my "Catalogue of Massachusetts Birds" I first advanced 

 the opinion that the so-called Tardus "Alicice" Baird, or 

 Gray-cheeked Thrush, was but the paler form of this species. 

 To this view other writers have taken exceptions. Prof. 

 Baird, in his "Review of American Birds" (p. 21), summa- 

 rily disposes of the matter by presuming that I had not seen 

 what he called T. Alicice. Dr. Cones, in his "List of the 

 Birds of New England," in referring to my remarks on the 

 subject, says they "illustrate very fully the well-known sea- 

 sonal and other variations to which T. Swainsonii and T. 

 fuscescens are subject," and adds that I appear to have been 

 "autoptically unacquainted" with T. Alicice at the time of 

 writing them. Since that time I have still farther considered 

 the subject, and have had large series of authentic specimens 

 of both T. Swainsonii and Alicice (mostly so labelled at the 

 Smithsonian Institution) for comparison with Massachusetts 

 specimens, and after five years of additional experience I am 

 now more than ever convinced that the opinion there ex- 

 pressed is correct. Some years the Alicice type is quite 

 common ; again more rare. Generally, however, the ma- 

 jority of the specimens range between the forms considered 

 as typical respectively of T. iSivainsonii and T. Alicice.* 



MOCKING BIRD. Mimus polyglotlus Boie. Several in- 

 stances of the occurrence of this southern species in the 

 vicinity of Springfield other than those previously recorded 

 have come to my knowledge during the last five years, and 

 also one of its occurrence in the eastern part of the state. 



CONNECTICUT WARBLER. Oporomis agilis Baird. Con- 

 cerning this species Mr. C. J. Maynard writes : "Perhaps not 

 as rare as is generally supposed by collectors, especially in 

 autumn. A specimen was shot by Mr. L. L. Thaxter in New- 

 ton Centre, September 16th, 1867. Another was taken by 

 myself in September, 1868, in a thick swamp near Newton. "f 



*For.a fuller discussion of this subject, see my paper in the Memoirs of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History, Vol. i, part iv (1868), p. 507. 

 t MSS. notes, received June, 1869. 



